Going Viral with March Madness

Earlier, we explain how to use the power of the lottery to make your site, products and content go viral. This article will explain another way to make your content go viral using the power of one of the most popular tournaments in the country.

This tournament is better known as the NCAA men’s basketball division 1 tournament or March Madness. March Madness begins in late February and extends into early March. The department uses a bracket style setup which allows fans of the game to take their best guesses at how the bracket will play out.

This is what you will want to do: About a week before the tournament starts, after they announced the team that will play in the tournament, hold a bracket contest. Offer a huge prize if anyone gets entire bracket correct. Huge prize meaning $1 million or so. Some say that again, you’re not getting $1 million to the person who gets in this contract, you’re given $1 million to someone if they get everything correct.

What are the odds of that?

The odds of one getting every single game correct is 2^62=4.6×10^18.

That means 4.6 with 18 zeros after it. In other words, no one will ever get the entire bracket correct. Just to be sure, you can get your prize insured. That way, if someone does when you will not have to declare bankruptcy. Because the odds are so slim, you can get this ensured for less than $100. This is a very affordable way to get people involved with your site.

This especially works well with a sporting niche site, however, the thrill of routing your teems on throughout the bracket appeals to a large audience and will work with other niches as well.

You can also go the traditional route and give a prize to the top finisher. This is not as exciting as the $1 million prize, however, it may be more beneficial to go this route depending on your niche. Offer them a free service or product. Maybe a jacket of their favorite college team, for example. This is different in that no matter what happens, you are going to have to give out a prize in the end. The good news is that you will not have a zero prize result or have to get out an extremely large prize to someone.

Holding a March madness rectors conference is a great radio people involved with the site for very low cost. Win or lose, your audience will enjoy competing in this bracket contest and you will enjoy great social results because it.

If you use this method, make sure you encourage participants to share the tournament so that it has a chance to go viral which is the goal at the end of the day.